Black code of Illinois

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Zebina Eastman. "Black Code of Illinois

[partial text only; author died
while writing it] (looJ)

ILLINOIS HISTORICAL SURVEY

UNIVERSITY Oi-
^'W'? LIBRARY

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LIBRARY

OF THE

UNIVERSITY OF ILLINOIS

BLACK CODE OF ILLINOIS.

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AT the portal of the State of Illinois, as if engraved on a
column of brass, stands this inscription, from the Ordinance
for its Government:

" There shall be neither slavery nor involuntary servitude in the
said Territory, otherwise than in punishment of crime whereof the
party shall have been duly convicted."

Why there should have been any occasion for this
restriction is one of the most marvelous eccentricities of
modern Christian civilization. Had the inscription over
the gateway been " Murder shall not enter here," it would
not have been more strange. There is a history to this
transaction which will invite the attention of us all, but
which can not be comprised in one chapter, and it serves
our purpose to introduce it simply as the first great fact, .
which must be before our sight, as the monumental tablet
from which we take our departure.

The interest in this great fact will be intensified when we
trace up future history, and find that the consecration of the
Northwest Territory, of which Illinois is a part, to freedom
forever, by the patriots founding this Nation, became the
pivotal Act by which slavery was not only excluded from
this section, but through which the Nation itself was finally
delivered from that curse; for it was on this consecrated
soil that the moral battle was fought, and that preceded
the war of emancipation. Here, in this State, was the first
contest waged against slavery, which became a conquest.

1 8 THE BLACK CODE OF ILLINOIS.

This conquest was the defeat, by the votes of the people of
Illinois in 1823-4, of the attempt to legalize slavery in the
State in violation of the Ordinance, in nullifying the Call
for a Convention to alter the constitution for that purpose.
Here a Lovejoy gave his blood in martyrdom, and in the
sphere of its Territory did a Giddings, Chase, Samuel
Lewis, a second Lovejoy, a Codding, a Collins, and an
"Uncle Tom's Cabin," work out their mission to this end.
In this State were trained for their great work, a Grant and
a Washburne, and for the completion of it all was raised
up ABRAHAM LINCOLN, to become the emancipator of the
four million slaves that, by the powers of evil, had been
nursed in the bosom of this Republic. Had there been no
Northwest in this moral sense, and no Northwestern Ordi-
nance for its Government, how vastly different would have
been the fate of this Nation, with its fearful slide into apos-
tasy, in its moral, political, and governmental condition!
This Ordinance bore date July 1*3, 1787.*

The enabling Act of Congress, by which the people of
the State might vote to put off their minority, and enter
into the indissoluble bonds of the National Union, required
strict conformity to this condition of perpetual freedom.

CONSTITUTIONAL PROVISIONS.

The Constitution of the State, made in 1818, makes this
harmonious declaration : " Neither slavery nor involuntary
servitude shall hereafter be introduced into this State other-
wise than for the punishment of crimes where the party
shall have been duly convicted," — indorsing and using the
words of the Ordinance.

One would think the Temple of Liberty sufficiently
guarded, bulwarked by these two firm buttresses, on which
stand the pillars at its portal. But there is something more
in this State Constitution, with only a break of a semicolon-

* Virginia made her cession March i, 1784.

THE BLACK CODE OF ILLINOIS. 19

It is this: "Nor shall any male person arrived at the age of
21 years, nor any female person arrived at the age of 18
years, be held to serve any person as a servant under any
indenture hereafter made, unless such person shall enter
into such indenture while in a state of perfect freedom, and
on a condition of a bona-fide consideration received or to
be received for their services. Nor shall any indenture of
any negro or mulatto hereafter made and executed out of
this State, or if made in this State, whose term of service
exceeds one year, be of the least validity, except those
given in cases of apprenticeship."

There seems to be a strange muddle of conditions in this
language. Involuntary servitude is prohibited, yet there
are certain conditions that remind us that permission is
granted under prohibition. Under the Constitution, no
person shall hereafter be bound as a servant unless he shall
enter into a contract with. perfect freedom; is there here a
constitutional inference that under the old law there was
constraint, and they were forced to be servants as they
had been forced to be slaves? Again, there shall be no
validity to a contract with a negro for more than one year's
service, except in case of apprenticeship. What else could
apprenticeship mean to a negro but that same condition he
was in before regulated by this Constitution ?

The Constitutional provisions are continued in other sec-
tions: "No person bound to labor in any other state shall
be hired to labor in this State, except within the tract
reserved for the salt-works near Shawneetown, nor even in
that place for a longer period than one year at any one
time, nor shall it be allowed there after the year 1825.
Any violation of this article shall effect the emancipation
of such person from his obligation to service." Permis-
sion again under prohibition. There is something about
this salt-work business worthy of attention. It was one
of the rat-holes through which slavery crept into the Terri-

20 THE BLACK CODE OF ILLINOIS.

tory. Saline springs or bogs were discovered which gave
to the early settlers the much-needed article of salt, if prop-
erly improved. To bring over a slave from Kentucky to
make salt enough to salt his porridge served the legal pur-
pose of his introduction, and many a farm was fenced and
worked in the southern portion of the State by slaves work-
ing in the salt-works; and that process of saving slavery
with salt continued till 1825.""

Another section provides as follows: "Each and every
person who has been bound to service by contract or in-
denture in virtue of the laws of Illinois Territory heretofore
existing, and in conformity to the provisions of the same,
without fraud or collusion, shall be held to a specific per-
formance of their contracts or indenture: and such negroes
or mulattoes as have been registered in conformity with
the aforesaid laws shall serve out the time appointed by
said laws; provided, however, that the children hereafter
born of such persons, negroes or mulattoes, shall become

* A saline, or water strong enough to make salt, was found in a district of
country about ten or twelve miles northwest of Shawneetown, on the Ohio
River. The salines were reserved from sale by the United States. The
General Government leased these salines to individuals, and afterward to the
State of Illinois, allowing slaves to be brought into the Territory for the pur-
pose of working them. Under the Territorial law, hundreds and thousands
of slaves were introduced into the southern part of the Territory, chiefly from
the states of Kentucky and Tennessee.

For all practical purposes, this part of the Territory was as much a slave-
state as any of the states south of the Ohio River. To roll a barrel of salt
once a year, or put salt into a salt-cellar, was sufficient excuse for any man to
hire a slave, and raise a field of corn. Slaves were not only worked at the
saline, they were waiters in taverns, draymen, and used in all manner of work
on the north side of the Ohio River. As villages and settlements extended
farther, the disease was carried with them. A black man or a black woman
was found in many families, in defiance of law, up to the confines of our Set-
tlement, sixty miles north, and in one instance in it. In some, but not many,
cases, they were held defiantly; in others, evasively. — English Settlement in
Jtdwards County. By Geo. Flower. Chicago Historical Society's Collection.
Vol. I. Chicago, 1882.

THE BLACK CODE OF ILLINOIS. 21

free— the males at the age of 21 years, and the female at
the age of 18 years. Each and every child born of indent-
ured parents shall be entered with the clerk of the county
in which they reside, by the owners, within six months from
the birth of said child." It seems by this that children of
indentured persons were constitutionally owned by their
masters. By reference to the law, which will be soon
quoted, it will be seen that perpetual slavery was possible
under this clause of the Constitution, for none of the chil-
dren were emancipated till they were of legal age; but
propagation may come much earlier than legal majority.

Such were the Constitutional provisions of the first Con-
stitution of the State, looking fair on their face; but on
close scrutiny it is seen to attempt to provide for a mud-
dled condition of things, which that old muddle of mud-
dles, the slave system ever brought to the community
and muddled the heads of our good fathers. They would
prohibit it, but were required to make provisions for its
continuance. The fathers of our Constitution, like Gov.
Edwards and Nathanial Pope, were among the best of our
early men. It was the hardest fate ever brought upon a
nation, to face this perpetuated evil of centuries with the
necessity that it must be ended ; and it is not strange that
it took the greatest war of modern times to cut that intri-
cate knot with the sword.*

Wm. H. Brown, Esq., in a lecture before the Chicago

* At the meeting of the Convention for forming the Constitution of Illinois,
in August, 1818, a decided majority of the delegates were in favor of admitting
slavery, in the face of the Northwestern Ordinance, and the Act of Congress
authorizing the Call of the Convention, to the contrary notwithstanding. We
were so informed by Col. Steyhenson, a member for Madison County, who
said it was entirely owing to the efforts and influence of three men, who were
not members, that the unrestricted admission of slavery into the State was not
allowed by the Constitution. These men were Ninian Edwards, Nathaniel
Pope, and Daniel P. Cook. As this fact was known to the disappointed
slavocrats, they conceived the design of trying the question again at a future
period. — Hoofer lVa,rren.

22 THE BLACK CODE OF ILLINOIS.

Lyceum, December 8, 1840,* states that "the sixth article
of the Constitution, declaring that slavery or involuntary
servitude should not hereafter be introduced into the State,
was the subject of warm debate, and the only exciting
topic during the session." He then gives a sketch of the
slave laws of the Territory, which will be given here in the
proper place, and continues: "Thus it will be perceive'd
that the subject of slavery, in all its varieties, as it then
existed, was calculated to excite a deep interest when it
was supposed that, by Acts of the Convention, it was to
be upheld or wholly swept away. Its advocates were anx-
ious to insert into the Constitution a saving clause, by
which their supposed rights would be confirmed, while the
ultras of the opposite party were ready to overturn the
whole fabric. The Convention took a middle course, leav-
ing the right to the French slaves and their descendants,
to be adjudicated by the Courts of the country; and
declaring that those who had been bound to service by
indenture or contract, in conformity with the Territorial
Law, without fraud or collusion, should be held to a specific
performance of their contracts, and also that those who
had been registered should serve out the time appointed
by law. The anti-slavery men were contented with the
saving clause in the words, "without fraud or collusion," as
they contended that in all cases of indentured servants
there was both the one and the other. To a great extent,
they were no doubt correct ; for cases were not uncommon
where the unfortunate servant, before going to the clerk's
office, was whipped into a proper state of mind, 'freely
and voluntarily' to enter into contract with his master.
But in all cases it was understood that if his consent were
not given, the slave would be immediately removed to a
slave-holding state, to remain in bondage in the hands of
some one perhaps less kind than his present possessor;"
* FERGUS' HISTORICAL SERIES, No. 4.

THE BLACK CODE OF ILLINOIS. 23

and the master had sixty days in which to make the
removal.

FRENCH SLAVES.

We must now go back a century or more to find facts
which will help to solve this muddle of the Constitution.

Notwithstanding Illinois was a part of the Northwest
Territory, and under the restriction of this Ordinance and
one of the States formed under it, it was nevertheless one
of the old slave-colonies. Slavery was introduced into Illi-
nois in 1720, when it was a part of the French possessions
of the Northwest. Philip Francis Renault formed a com-
pany in France for working mines in upper Louisiana,
which was a part of Illinois; and he started from his coun-
try ostensibly in the mining business, with two hundred
mechanics and laborers, and on his way at San Domingo,
he purchased five hundred slaves, and brought them with
him to Illinois. A portion of these, or their descendants,
were afterward removed to the other French possessions,
on the west of the Mississippi, and helped to swell the ag-
gregate of Louisiana slavery. Those that remained were
the progenitors of the class known in our State from old
time as the "French slaves," and fell in later as a part of
the report of the census of slaves in Illinois ; and the French-
man Renault must be set down as the first Illinois slave-
holder.*

These French slave-holders have been described as being

* I find mention made of this important character in E. G. Mason's " Kas-
kaskia and its Parish Records" (FERGUS* HISTORICAL SERIES, No. 12),
under date of May, 1721. He appears at the register of the baptism of the
son of a Pawnee slave, as le Sieur Philippe de la Renaudiere, directeur des
mines pour la Compagnie «" Occident. Mr. Mason says, " He was a great man
in the new colony," and he appears next in the entry of the baptism of a son
born of the marriage of himself (this Renaudiere) with the lady Perrine Pivet.
The baptism of the son of this great man, of a little place, was a state affair,
involving the signatures of all the other great characters of the community.

24 THE BLACK CODE OF ILLINOIS.

of rather high-class men, and kind and paternal to their
slaves. We know that the French, on their possession of
the Northwest, found little difficulty in affiliating with the
aborigines, and doubtless they could look upon the black
person as not altogether uncompanionable. As indicative
of the French relations both to the Indians and the Negroes,
we find such entries as these from Mr. Mason's transcript
of the Parish Records of Kaskaskia. The first entry, in
an early volume, is the record of the baptism of a son of
one of Hennepin's voyageurs, intermarried with a daughter
of the chief of the Kaskaskias. Entries of the baptisms
of children by intermarriages with the Indians are very
common. There is an entry of the baptism of the daugh-
ter of a slave woman, which bears an Indian name. Records-
are made of the baptisms of slaves, men and women ; and
also of the marriage of slaves with each other. We know
that the Catholics (of which religion these French settlers
were) regard marriage as a holy sacrament, and baptism a
sort of saving ordinance. These ceremonies, performed
with the slaves Renault bought in St. Domingo, show that
in the estimation of the good fathers the property relation
could not step in to bar them from their spiritual privileges;
whereas we know that in our enlightened period of Ameri-
can Christian bondage, marriages were never solemnized
with the slaves, except in mockery, and with the union
limited to circumstances and the will of , the owner to sep-
arate the twain; and baptism seldom, and then often in
this form: "Caesar, the property of Napoleon Bonaparte
Smith, I baptise thee in the name of- — ," etc. We

are glad to record that any sunshine of humanity could
any where have penetrated into that dark cloud.

This importation of blacks made a distinct class and the
occasion of a distinct order of slaveholders about Kaskaskia
and the American Bottoms, and where now descendants of
both masters and slaves reside in a common Illinois citi-

THE BLACK CODE OF ILLINOIS. 2$

zenship.* At that time slavery was legalized in all Chris-
tian countries — that is, if regulating a system which the law
did not create be legalizing it. If there is any law that
created American slavery, I have not yet found it. These
slaves that Renault brought to Illinois were under French
jurisdiction at that time and for nearly half a century, till
the Northwest was ceded to Great Britain in the treaty of
1763. They then came under the English law of bondage (if
there was any such); and when the Territory was captured
by George Rogers Clark, in 1778, which was done in the
name of the sovereignty of Virginia, if they continued
slaves under any law, it must have been under the slave
code of Virginia. When that State c^eded the territory to
the Nation, these slaves must have been perpetuated in
bondage under United States law; and yet the United
States had no such law. From the cession of Virginia to
the Nation in 1784, till 1790, when Gov. St. Clair organ-
ized the county which took his name, the people who resided
in this Territory had no legislative or judicial supervision,

* The Settlement of Kaskaskia, Prairie-du-Rocher, Fort Chartres, Prairie-
du-Pont, and Cahokia, in the "American Bottom," now included in the coun-
ties of Randolph, Monroe, and St. Clair, were made by Frenchmen about one
hundred years previously to the passage of the Ordinance of 1787. These
French settlers were principally Indian traders, the owners of a considerable
number of slaves, which they continued to hold in defiance of that Ordinance^
and by the time the Territory and State began to be settled by Americans,
they had become very wealthy. They, or their descendants, by means of
intermarriage with American immigrants, have wielded an influence which has
continued to rule the political destiny of the State. Among those Americans
who thus made their fortunes by marrying the daughters or granddaughters of
the old French settlers, are some of the numerous family of the Morrisons,
Elias K. Kane, Col. Thomas Jefferson, Vance Owen, late Dr. Belts of Chi-
cago. Judge Breese, (Judge Thomas, ) John Reynolds, and Adam W. Snyder.
— //. Warren in Genius of Liberty.

Of the French descendants direct, there were those who had the same influ-
ence in the line of their .inherited perquisite, as, for instance, Pierre Menard
and Nicholas Jarrott. And as politicians, and they have been prominent as
such in the State, they were ever true to their inherited interests.

26 THE BLACK CODE OF ILLINOIS.

and were a law unto themselves, holding the slaves with
the grip which they had previously obtained. But the
Ordinance for the secession declared that "there shall be
neither slavery nor involuntary servitude in the said Terri-
tory." Why this Ordinance was inoperative in this essen-
tial point, to the slavery then in existence, is something
similar in character to the later Dred Scott decision — virt-
ually that not to have slavery was unconstitutional. But
the action of the Ordinance of 1787 was said to be pro-
spective, and the courts so decided. It was not until
1845 that the supreme court of this State settled this ques-
tion of "vested rights," deciding that the slave descendants
of Renault's importation of 125 years previous were free;
and the Constitution of this State, of 1848, put an end to
( involuntary servitude of every form in Illinois.* In 1800,
there was probably a population in the section that became
Illinois of about three thousand persons. At that time there
were reported in the census, including Indiana as well, 133
slaves. These must have been in the main in Illinois, and
the descendants of the "French slaves." In 1810, Illinois
had 168 slaves; in 1820,917 — a vast increase in the course
of twenty years, showing that the increase must have come,
if genuine slaves, from smuggling in from the border
slave States, and held under the inherited vested rights, or
laborers in the salt-works, or from the "indentured -ser-
vants system," which was a dodge upon the restrictive
clause of the Ordinance. In 1820, the population of the
State was 48,919 whites, 1,476 blacks, 917 of which were
slaves; total, 50,395.

ATTEMPTS TO ABROGATE THE ORDINANCE OF '87.

There came, in time, the practise of disregarding this
prohibition in bringing slaves into many parts of the

* Western Annals.

THE BLACK CODE OF ILLINOIS. 2/

Territory, and even reporting them in the census. This
was done in Wisconsin as late as 1840, the marshal report-
ing a number of slaves in the said Territory. Dr. E. G.
Dyer, of Burlington, Wis., father of the United States
judge, C. E. Dyer, of Racine, attacked the marshal for this
illegal report, and disclosed the fact that these reported
slaves were held generally by persons in official positions
in the United States government* Such were some of the
early assumptions of the doctrine of squatter sovereignty,
that a man had the inalienable right to take his slave with
him into any territory into which he chose to remove. These
facts are a little ahead of the logical events of history. But
it suits the symmetry of the subject to bring them in here.
It is best, however, to state here that the prohibition of
slavery in the Northwest Territory was a bid, like "free
Kansas," for its settlement by a hardy and industrious class
who thrived by the labor of their own hands, and for its
settlement by a class of men from the South who were
conscientiously opposed to slaveholding. It was empha-
sized as a free country, and free men felt invited to make
here their homes. The early population of the Northwest
was composed of men of this mingled character; and
those who believed that prosperity came from one man
having the power to compel some other man to work for
him for nothing, viz.: those who would own slaves. -j*

There came, then, from this condition the incipient con-
flict of ideas of the past generation. The anti-slavery sen-

* See Appendix — Slavery in Wisconsin.

t During the consideration of the Ordinance of '87 in Congress, Rev. Ma-
nassah Cutler, representing a company of capitalists from New England, was
negotiating with Congress for the purchase of four millions of acres of land
in the Northwest, on which to settle colonies from the East, which he declared
would be "of the most robust and industrious people in America, which would
instantly advance the price of Federal lands," etc. The anti-slavery sentiment
of Virginia and the period of the Revolution, seconded by the desire of free
laborers to possess the land, determined the policy of the Ordinance.

28 THE BLACK CODE OF ILLINOIS.

timent of the Revolution was then pervading as a live
principle. There was dissatisfaction by interested persons
on the other side at the restriction in the Ordinance. The
first petition on the subject to Congress came in 1796, from
four persons in Kaskaskia, in this State, the seat of this
inherited French slavery, asking that slavery might be
tolerated there. It seems that they felt they were holding
their chattels on a feeble tenure. At that time we were
all in one common Northwest Territory. Ohio became a
State in 1 800; then all the territory west and north of the
Ohio River, from the mouth of the Kentucky, became the
Territory of Indiana, with William Henry Harrison gover-
nor. In 1804, a Convention was held at Vincennes, of
which Gov. Harrison was president, to deliberate on terri-
torial interests, and from this Convention went up a memo-
rial to Congress, which was referred to a committee, which
reported, recommending the suspension of the sixth article
of the Ordinance of 1787, "in a qualified manner, for ten
years, so as to permit the introduction of slaves born in.
the United States." This report was not adopted, and
neither the previous prayer of the Kaskaskians heeded.

At the session of the Indiana Territorial Legislature in
1806-7, a series of resolutions were adopted and reported
to Congress by the delegate, requesting the suspension of
this restrictive article of the Ordinance. We were then a
part of that Territory. Jesse B. Thomas was speaker of
the house, and Pierre Menard, president of the council ;
both citizens of Illinois, the latter a French slaveholder, and
the former intermarried writh such. This report was lost
in Congress also. These early efforts to establish slavery
aroused the people, and an issue was made similiar to that
which was made afterward in our State called the "conven-
tion question." . Jonathan Jennings, an anti-slavery mant
was elected Delegate to Congress, which position he held
till Indiana was admitted as a State. It is known that

THE BLACK CODE OF ILLINOIS. 29

Gen. Harrison was in favor of introducing slavery into
the Northwest Territory.*

These facts prepare us for the introduction of " The
Black Code of Illinois." Some of the people, if they could
not have slavery legitimately, would have it illegitimately;
for the infamy which fell upon us was conceived in sin and
brought forth in iniquity, a half-parented progeny.

TERRITORIAL LEGISLATION.

The Indiana Territorial Legislature passed an Act,
dated Sept. 17, 1807, which is the embryo of our Black
Code, with this title: "An Act concerning the introduction
of Negroes and Mulattoes into this Territory."

As statute enactments are rather dull reading, I will
summarise the thirteen sections of this act of 1807, which
is the nucleus of our Black Code, into a few sentences.

The Act permits the oivncr of any negro or mulatto,

* There are facts as well as admissions that prove the views entertained by
Gen. Harrison. See Henry Wilson's History of the Slave Power, also Harri-
son's Speech at Vincennes, during the presidential canvass of 1840.

"When this provision (excluding slavery fro/n the Territory of Illinois) was
under consideration, Gen. Harrison, then a member of the House of Repre-
sentatives from Ohio, declared in debate that this prohibitary clause could
have no effect after the State was duly organized and admitted to the Union.
[This seems to be primary squatter sovereignty.] He contended that his own
State, Ohio, had the right, notwithstanding the Ordinance and the Act of
Congress, at any time to alter her Constitution so as to admit slavery. "-
Jlooper IVarren in Genius of Liberty, July 17, 1841.

And not only was he in favor of legalizing slavery in the Northwest Terri-
tory, but it appears that he was actually a slaveholder under the Ordinance of
'87. We now give some facts from a rare and reliable source, Lundy's Genius
sf Universal Emancipation. The article was published in 1822, in the Genius
and in a Cincinnati paper, where the scene occurred :

"A circumstance transpired about seven years ago in this city which shows
clearly the tyrannical disposition of this self-styled ardent friend of human
liberty. The story is related by the family who witnessed the scene, as follows :
About the time above stated, Gen. Harrison entered the house of Mr. Jacob
Hoops, on Sixth Street,, in search of a black woman named ISetty, whose ser-
vice he claimed. He found her at her work in the kitchen, and immediately

3O THE BLACK CODE OK ILLINOIS.

above the age of 15, to bring him into the Territory — and
within 30 days to register him with the clerk, and there
make an agreement, which is to be recorded.

Sec. I. Authorizes the owner of any negro or mulatto
of and above the age of 15 years, and owing service and
labor as a slave, in any State or Territory in the United
States, to bring said slaves into this Territory.

Sec. 2. Provides that the owner of such negro, etc.,
might within 30 days go with the same before the Clerk of
the Court of Common Pleas, in the county where the par-
ties reside, and agree with the negro or mulatto upon the
number of years he or she should serve the master, to be
recorded by the Clerk.

Sec. 3. Allows the master, in case of the refusal of
the slave to make such contract, to remove him within 60
days into any State or Territory. If the slave should
stand on his new dignity and refuse, the master could

ordered her to get her clothes and follow him. The woman started to go up
stairs, which were at that time in an unfinished state, and as she was old and
clumsy, and probably withal a good deal agitated, she found it difficult to
ascend. Whereupon the general fell to beating her with his cane, in a most
unmerciful manner, and actually broke it by the violence of the blows. Not-
withstanding he was William H. Harrison, late a general in the army, he
received a severe reprimand from a young lady, the daughter of Mr. Hoops,
which, if it did not shame him very much, astonished him. Mr. Hoops,
hearing a disturbance in the house, went in and inquired the cause; where-
upon the humane, noble-hearted general, seeing a man in the house, imme-
diately retired. Shortly after, he had the woman arrested according to law,
took her before a magistrate, and substantiated his claim to her.

Now came on the second act of the heart-rending scene. The woman (as
might be expected from the treatment she had received) utterly refused to go
with the general. She said he had agreed to set her free at a certain time, on
condition she would come with him from Vincennes to this State; that she
had left her husband and came on that condition; and that the time appointed
had expired. But her entreaties were of no avail; this friend of human free-
dom had her dragged in a most shocking, brutal manner across the common
to his boat on the river!" What strange combinations of legal assumptions
could have made Gen. Harrison believe he had any title to this woman, to
take her from one free state to another! or to hold her anywhere!

THE BLACK CODE OF ILLINOIS. 31

remove him in 60 days. Property could be acquired in
these registered slaves, till males were 35, females 32 — and
children born of such should be owned by their master till
30 and 28.

Sec. 5. Provides that any person removing into the
Territory with, or should any person acquire, a property in
such slaves, they might hold such slaves to service, males
to the age of 35, females to 32.

Sec. 6. Made it the duty of the master to register with
the Clerk their names and ages, and they were styled reg-
istered or indentured servants.

Sec. 13. Provided that children born of such indentured
parents, should serve their masters (owners}, males until
the age of 30, females 28.

This continued to be the law of the Territory, of which
Illinois was a part; in 1809, Illinois became a Territory of
herself, and re-enacted the former territorial laws, making
the Act above quoted the law of the Illinois Territory. It
is this law that is referred to in the Constitution quoted,
and therein somewhat modified. This Territorial Black
Code, with the Constitutional modifications, became the
law by adoption of the State of Illinois, until she remod-
eled and enlarged it in 1819.

But the iniquity of the thing was not yet wholly ma-
tured. Under the State law, it was simplified and worked
up into a system. The laws were revised, and what had
gone before with that which seemed best to have added,
were codiciled, so to speak, or made into our code. The
revision took place in 1833. It is in this revision, with the
act of 1829, where the special elements of slavery come in,
by which we may characterize it as a Slave, as well as a
Black Code.

STATE LEGISLATION.
Act approved March 30, 1819.

32 THE BLACK CODE OF ILLINOIS.

Sec. I. Prohibits any black or mulatto person settling
or residing in the State without producing a certificate of
freedom, etc. This section was amended and will be
referred to again. It was the first blow at free negroes.
It follows the precedent of slave- state legislation, that
gives no place for a negro on our broad domain unless he
be a slave; in this case, that this State shall not be an
asylum for those who ran away from oppression.

There are 25 sections to this act, and if it were not for
the variety of the matter, would be very dull reading. I
have carefully summarised them all. It would weary you
beyond measure, if I were to give these sections entire.
But you may be assured they will read very well by the
side of the Blue Laws; Black and Blue together.

Sec. 2. Makes it the duty of all free negroes having
families and having a certificate, as before provided, to
register their families, with a description of each name,
age, etc.

Sec. 3. Prohibits any person from bringing any slave
into this State for the purpose of emancipating such slave,
making it a condition for those who do so, to give bond
in the penal sum of one thousand dollars, condition that
such slave shall not become a county charge; neglecting
so to do, subjected the offender to a fine of $200 for each
one so emancipated. [The law was in operation, and
upon Gov. Coles, for emancipating his Virginia slaves, at
Edwardsville, in 1819.]* It was amended in 1833, so as to

* Edward Coles, afterward governor, was born in Virginia, and was an
anti-slavery man of the old school of Jefferson, Franklin, etc. He removed
to this State for permanent residence in 1819. He brought with him a family
of slaves, whom he had inherited. On a flatboat on the Ohio River he for-
merly gave them their freedom. On the 4th of July, 1819, he legally eman-
cipated them, giving them deeds of emancipation. This was in violation of
the law of March 19, which had been passed the previous spring, and which,
at that time, was not generally known, not having been published. These
deeds of emancipation were the basis of much persecution, and a long and

THE BLACK CODE OF ILLINOIS. 33

allow the emancipator release, on giving bonds that the
slave should not become a county charge.

Sec. 4. Requires every black or mulatto (except slaves
or persons held to service) to register his name and his
family, with their description and the evidences of free-
dom, which shall be recorded by the clerk, which certifi-
cate of record should be sufficient evidence of freedom,
except as against the claim of a slave-owner. This was a
law altogether to hit the free negro.

Sec. 5. Forbids any person, under a penalty of one
dollar and fifty cents a-day, from hiring or employing such
negroes, without a certificate of freedom, keeping the said
free negro out of employment. This was amended.

Sec. 10. Makes it the duty of masters to provide ser-
vants with sufficient food, clothing, etc., — a law found
necessary in slavery — but it is no where found necessary to
require an owner to give his horse sufficient hay and grain,
unless on common grounds of cruelty to animals.

Sec. ii. Makes these contracts for services assignable
to other persons, with consent of servants, such assign-
ments to administrators, assigns, etc. Thus the property
relation is recognized. It was a common thing to sell
these servants.

Sec. 12. Provides that any servant being lazy, disor-
derly, guilty of misbehavior, may be whipped, upon an
, order of a justice; or refusing to work, be compelled by a
like process, and forfeiting two days to the end of his ser-
vice for every one in which he so refuses and is whipped

bitter lawsuit. Suit was instituted against him in 1824, while he was governor
of the State, by a worthless fellow set on for the purpose, with the title, The
County of Madison versus Edward Coles. John Reynolds was the judge, and
the case went over to another term, and judgment rendered against defendant
for $2000. The Legislature, in 1825, passed an Act releasing all penalties
under this Act. But the case was still kept in court by appeals and devices
of annoyance, until finally the emancipator was let off from the penalty of this
philanthropic deed, by the payment of heavy costs.

3

34 THE BLACK CODE OF ILLINOIS.

up to it, and all expenses, including whipping, be paid by
him in labor, which would finally have to be whipped out
of him.

Sec. 13. Provides that for the failure of the master's
duties, or if he is guilty of injuring his servant, it must be
redressed in the Circuit Court — a pretty hard court for a
flogged slave to get access to.

Sec. 14. Makes all contracts between masters and ser-
vants, during the time of service, void.

Sec. 15. Makes it the duty of the Circuit Court at all
times to hear complaints of servants, being citizens, (here
is a difference) against masters, for immoderate correction,
or on complaints of masters against servants for desertion,
etc. There was a slave law in slave States that absolved
a master from punishment if the slave died under moder-
ate correction.

There seems to be some protection to the negro in these
sections, but we shall see that in the Act concerning Prac-
tise in the Courts, in R. Laws, page 536, it provides that a
person having one-fourth negro-blood, shall in no case be
a witness against a white person.

Sec. 1 6. Provides that if any servant shall lawfully
acquire property during the time of service, such property
shall be for his own use; and the master is compelled to
care for him when sick and lame, until his term expires,
under penalty of $30, for use of the county. [Mercy here
again some what strained.]

Sec. 17. Forbids any negro or Indian from purchasing
any servant other than of their own color, and makes such
contract void. [If this law had extended to white per-
sons it might have put a new face on servant hire.]

Sec. 18. Forbids any person to hire or to buy, sell,
receive of, to, or from any servant or slave, any coin, or
commodity, without consent of the master, under a forfeit-
ure of four times the value of the article sold or given.

THE BLACK CODE OF ILLINOIS. 35

[A dollar given in good-will on Christmas would involve
a forfeiture of four dollars.] It also provides that at the
expiration of the term, the clerk shall give a certificate,
which shall indemnify any person for thereafter hiring.

Sec. 19. Provides that in all cases of penal acts, where
free persons are punishable by fine, servants shall be pun-
ished by whipping^ and the rate given (twenty lashes for
every eight dollars, the rate of the currency being forty
cents a lash), unless the offender procures another person
to pay his fine.

[We see from the above, with all power of contract gone,
and buying and selling prohibited, what little chance the
person has of lawfully acquiring property, or what chance
he may have of paying off a penalty, for which the white
loafer pays eight dollars, while the black must settle it at
the rate of twenty lashes for every eight dollars. We can
see no reasonableness in this, except that, like the skinning
of eels, they did n't mind it, because they were used to it.]

Sec. 20. Provides that at the expiration of his service,
every servant may have his freedom recorded, etc.

Sec. 21. Provides that if any slave or servant shall be
found at a distance of ten miles from the tenement of his
master without a pass, it shall be lawful for any person to
apprehend and carry him or her before a justice, by whose
order he or she may be whipped, not exceeding thirty-five
lashes. [How much thirty-five lashes means there is no
way to tell, unless some one tries it, having them well laid
on.]

Sec. 22. Provides that if any slave or servant shall pre-
sume to come and be upon the plantation, or at the dwell-
ing of any person whatever, without leave of his or her
owner, not being sent on lawful business, [it is pretty hard
to tell just here, in this muddle of law, what is lawful
business for a slave] the owner of such plantation or
dwelling may give such servant or slave ten lashes on the
bare back.

36 THE BLACK CODE OF ILLINOIS.

Sec. 23. Provides that riots, routs, unlawful assemblies,
trespasses, and seditious speeches by any slave or slaves,
servant or servants, may be punished, at the discretion of a
justice; and whoever will, MAY apprehend such persons
and bring them before the justice. [This Mr. Whoever
Will becomes a constable. There may be a black crowd,
perhaps of one more than three jolly persons, and at the
lead of one white villain they may be brought before a
justice, and he the only witness of their evil plotting or
riotous conduct, (negroes will sometimes laugh boister-
ously,) and not one of them can say a word of defence or
explanation, or affirm that they were not engaged in their
spiritual devotions, but they must bare their backs to
whatever flagelation the justice may discretionarily inflict.]

We have a vague notion that the Ordinance of '87 had
something to say to the effect that slaves should not be
on this soil to tempt the lash of the justice; also that the
Constitution has something to say in regard to offences,
trial by jury, and about unreasonable arrests; and that
punishments should be in proportion to offences, and not
according to the amount of whisky that had been imbibed.

Sec. 24. Imposes a fine of $20 upon any person who
suffers or permits slaves or servants of color, to the num-
ber of more than three, to assemble in any house, yard, or
shed, (pasture and wood-lot ought to have been added) for
the purpose of reveling, night or day. [Fun, as well as
mischief, is here discouraged by the righteous law. This
is a law for white men, and they come in for some share of
the penalty, in giving any countenance to the effervescent
demonstrations of the colored person's right to be a man.]

Sec. 25. Makes it the duty of all coroners, sheriffs,
judges, and justices, who see or know of any such assem-
blage, immediately to commit such persons to jail; and on
proof have them whipped, (whipped for having a jolly
time,) not exceeding — exceeding how much? — thirty-nine

THE BLACK CODE OF ILLINOIS. 37

lashes on the bare back, the very next day, unless it should
be Sunday, then the whipping was to come off Monday.
[Swift and pious justice! Every black crowd of more
than three, for having a jolly night of it, might be tolera-
bly sure of a thirty-nine lash flogging the very next day,
unless it was done on the slave's favorite night for a good
time, Saturday night, then they might be sure of the Sab-
bath's rest and contemplation in jail of what should come
on Monday, which might be called a red-day. One is per-
plexed which to admire most, the philanthropy of this law
or its piety, as is indicated by its reverence for the Lord's
Holy Day.]

These several last sections seem like a transcript of the
slave codes of Louisiana or South Carolina. The people of
those days in Illinois must have lived in mortal fear of an
insurrection of their numerous slaves. Possibly there may
have been an awakening of conscience to have made cow-
ards of them all.

THE SLAVE PARTY.

Thus far, as to the legislation of the State, soon after
Illinois became one of the Union, perhaps indicating the
civilization of the times. The Act of which the foregoing
is a summary, was approved March 30, 1819. Shadrack
Bond was then our first Governor. It was evidently in
accordance with the sentiments of the Governor, and the
personal party which supported him. Political party lines
were not then drawn. But there was then- already a nu-
cleus of a party forming; HOOPER WARREN, the editor of
the only anti-slavery paper in the State, or indeed then in
the Nation, called it the SLAVE PARTY. The promoters of
the slave system in our legislature — but not the people at
large — had shown thus much their greed for the slavery
that was monopolized in the section known as the slave
States. That system was wisely excluded by the Ordi-

38 THE BLACK CODE OF ILLINOIS.

nance of '87, and they took the next best substitute they
could for it; indentured and registered servants, and slav-
ery to a limited extent, in a thin disguise, and in the
monopoly of the salt business. The population at the
extreme section of the State was made up largely from
emigrants over the line in Kentucky, and the neighboring
State of Tennessee, and they thought it a political blun-
der that slavery had been excluded from this Territory.
Among the population there was a class of men from the
South who were conscientiously opposed to slavery; and
also in the northern section, a population from the Free-
States, who had never had the curse of slavery upon them,
and desired to be ever free from it. This class abounded
in th,e northern counties, which had rapidly become more
populous; but at the same time, by the apportionment of
representatives in districts, the slave party, as Mr. Warren
called it, had a preponderating influence in the legislature.
The legislature for many years in the beginning of our
career as a State, was in favor of the slave policy, and the
people against it.

LEGALIZATION OF SLAVERY.

Therefore, four years after the passage of this law, of
which I have given a synopsis, the legislature, through
some crookedness, passed an Act, to authorize the people
to vote on a call for a convention to alter the constitution,
by a two-thirds vote, for the ostensible purpose of legislat-
ing slavery, genuine Kentucky slavery, into the State of
Illinois. This was that important epoch in our State his-
tory known as the Convention Question, and not much
known at the present time either. The people voted it
down by a respectable majority. With this object, voted
for at that election on the same ticket, "For the Conven-
tion," which meant for slavery, were the following proposi-
tions:

THE BLACK CODE OF ILLINOIS. 39

"For exclusion of negroes and mulattoes. No right of
suffrage or office to negroes or mulattoes."

"For laws excluding negroes and mulattoes from com-
ing into and voting in this State."

I never have been able to find the Act which authorized
the people to vote on the Convention, but I infer that the
vote was on these propositions as well, and was voted
down with the call, for I find them on a ticket, as given in
the lately-published life of Gov. Edward Coles, by Hon.
E. B. Washburne. This Convention Question forms a
chapter of its own. It has been an overlooked episode in
our history. Almost all that has been published about it,
consecutively, has come from the auspices of the Histori-
cal Society, in Mr. Brown's Lecture,* and in Mr. Wash-
burne's Life of Coles. It is remarkable as being the only
triumph made by the people over a direct issue for slavery,
national or otherwise, made by the machinations of the
slave power, from the passage of the Ordinance of '87 till
the defeat of the slave power in its rebellion. It was a
political conflict, immediately succeeding the Missouri
Compromise, in which the slave power won, and which
partook of the nature of the prolongation of that contest,
transferred to a free State.

It is worthy of note, how much the people in the early
period of our State were misrepresented by the legisla-
ture. The people were soundly opposed to the slavery
policy, from the earliest time, so that, as we have seen, the
combined Territory of Indiana elected Jonathan Jennings,
an anti-slavery man, delegate, and kept him in office till
Indiana became a State; then, in the Territory of Illinois,
Nathaniel Pope, an anti-slavery man, was elected and was
a delegate when Illinois became a State; and Ninan
Edwards, the Territorial Governor, was known as an anti-
slavery man, though, as one of our first Senators, he voted
* FERGUS' HISTORICAL SERIES, No. 4.

40 THE BLACK CODE OF ILLINOIS.

for the admission of Missouri with slavery. The people
were known to be opposed to the Missouri Compromise,
yet the legislature elected Senators who supported it, while
the people elected Daniel P. Cook to Congress, who had
voted against it; the legislature refused to censure or
instruct their Senators, while the people reflected Cook by
a large majority; the legislature voted for a convention,
and the people largely voted it down; the people con-
tinued to reelect Mr. Cook, the anti-slavery Representative
to Congress, while the legislature made Senators succes-
sively of the candidates, John McLean, and E. K. Kane,
who were beaten by Mr. Cook in the election with the
people.

The legislature having failed to get a recognition from
the people for the Convention, and for the expulsion of
free negroes, and general slave policy in that vote of 1824,
proceeded to do what they could, in their own way, to
carry out this policy, apparently independent of their
constituents. The legislature was then so constituted, as
partly explained before, that a minority of the voters
could elect a majority of the State Representatives and
Senators.

It is to be observed that this Act of 1819, which I have
abridged, related mainly to the introduction of negroes as
servants. It need -not be inferred there were no negroes,
free or otherwise, in the State, or that they were indiffer-
ent as to their treatment and fate, or that they laid down
supinely under the burden of oppression laid upon .them,
or that they had no friends to advocate their rights. They
had such friends as Gov. Coles, Hooper Warren, John M.
Peck, Morris Birkbeck, and George Flower. Persons styl-
ing themselves free persons of color, had the audacity to
petition the Legislature of 1822-3, in which they very
humbly asked a redress from their grievances under the
law cited, and for the right of suffrage. The petition starts

THE BLACK CODE OF ILLINOIS. 41

forth with this premise: "Notwithstanding the Father of
Mercies moved the hearts of the citizens of this State, and
actuated them to throw off the shackles of slavery from
our sable race, yet, awful to relate, (and in a free country,
too,) we are the objects of rapine, plunder, and devasta-
tion to free-booters." One would think so from the law
which I have given in synopsis. This petition deserves
a place in full in this history. The style of the production
shows that it was of the colored people's own concoction.*
The promoters of the slave party had failed to get from
the people any authority for special legislation against free
blacks. If their policy is to be pursued, some amend-
ments or additions to the existing code will be required;
and the coming emergency, in the growing civilization, or
uncivilization, which contact with the growing love for
slavery aggression demanded, must be regarded with or
without constitutional authority. The process of amend-
ment did not mend, but marred, as alterations in the com-
mandments consists in breaking them in other spots.

LEGISLATION INTENSIFIED.

So in 1829, five years after the rebuff on the Convention
Question, and the several disapprovals by the people of
the policy of the slave party, the Black or Slave Code was
amended by additions, and the animus of th& times vented
upon the negro as a negro, in the Act of January 7, (1829)
which will now come up for review.

This Act will be seen to be largely a transcript of the
genuine slave code of the Southern Slave States, applied
to territory where slavery was forever prohibited. Hith-
erto the negro had in a measure been left to himself, if he
did not happen to belong to the enslaved class; and there
did not seem to be any call to legislate to keep the negro
in the bonds which had been laid upon him in the other

* See Appendix.

42 THE BLACK CODE OF ILLINOIS.

states. So this act becomes a voluntary offering to the
slave system that was locked up in the Nation. This, and
the previous one of 1819, was further sanctified by being
taken in bodily into the Revised Laws of 1833. We will
now proceed with a synopsis of the Act of January 7,
1829 — passed ten years after the previous Act.

Sec. i. Prohibits any black or mulatto person, not
being a citizen of the United States, from coming and
residing in this State, until such person shall produce to
the County Commissioners' Court where he or she shall
settle, a certificate of freedom, duly authenticated; and
also give bond in the penal sum of one thousand dollars,
with sufficient security, conditioned that such person shall
never become a charge to any county in this State as a
poor person; and at all times to demean himself or herself
in strict conformity with the laws that now are, or here-
after shall be, enacted. It also imposes a fine of Jive
hundred dollars (one-half to the county and the other to
the prosecutor) upon all persons who shall harbor, hire, or
in any way give sustenance, to any negro or mulatto who
has not such bond.

[Now in all conscience, what has come over the face of
the earth, especially Illinois, these last ten years, that
should so have affected the negro, the morals, the religion,
the education, culture, and civilization of the people of this
State, up to the momentous epoch of 1829, that such an
act, bearing upon the negro, should have been passed, as
indicated by this first section? What sticklers for the
observance of law the people have at once become, or the
legislature, that they put one class of people under bond
to obey the law which another class have enacted, or may
hereafter enact! And have the people such regard for it,
that before they give a hungry man a dinner, before they
send him down into the pasture to drive up the cows,
before they let a poor colored woman wash their shirts,

THE BLACK CODE OF ILLINOIS. 43

before they pull certain persons out of the water for fear
they will be drowned, they will search in their pockets to
see if they have given a bond for freedom!]

We will observe the apparent sincerity with which the
first clause opens, in recognizing the rights of citizens of
any one of the other States. This was suggested from a
clause in the Missouri -Compromise Act, that while the
said act permitted slavery, it prohibited the State from
excluding from her citizenship any person who was a
citizen of another State; which meant free negroes from
States where there was no restriction on account of color.
New York was then an instance of this kind. This was
supposed to be a bitter pill for Missouri; but she took it
with her slavery with a right good relish, and she honora-
bly stood by it to the last; and a free 'nigger' of New York
was always a free 'nigger' in Missouri. Illinois imitated her
slave-holding honor in that regard, in this clause of the
section quoted. But as the apostacy towards slavery came
on, this right in Illinois was regarded less sacred, and this
clause was repealed, as we shall see, and a colored citizen
of New York was no longer permitted to settle in Illinois,
and thus the State sunk itself below the slave-holding
honor of Missouri.

Sec. 2. Declares that any black or mulatto person who
shall be found in this State, not having such a certificate
(as required in section one), shall be deemed a run-away
slave or servant, and may be taken by any inhabitant in
this State before a justice, and if unable to produce a cer-
tificate, the justice shall commit him or her to the custody
of the sheriff, who shall keep such person, and in three
days advertise him upon the court-house door, and in the
nearest newspaper, giving a description of such supposed
run-away; and if within six weeks the person so com-
mitted shall not produce a certificate or other evidence of
freedom, (the citizen of New York could produce neither

44 THE BLACK CODE OF ILLINOIS.

master or certificate of freedom, and other evidence might
not be available, and no claim could be made for him
except by a kidnapper) the sheriff shall hire out such per-
son for the best price, after five days' notice, from month
to month, for one year; and if during the year no owner
shall appear and substantiate a claim to such person, the
sheriff shall give a certificate of the facts; whereupon
such person shall be deemed free, unless thereafter lawfully
claimed by a proper owner. Should such owner appear,
he is required to pay to the taker-up ten dollars, to the
justice two dollars, and to the sheriff reasonable fees and
expenses. [We see that the object of this section is to
make a blood-hound of the State for southern slave-hold-
ers; and that the "any inhabitant" who plays the part of
the blood-hound is well paid, and that justice at two dol-
lars is cheap.]

Sec. 3. Forbids, under penalty of fine, whipping, and
imprisonment, any marriage of all persons of color with a
white person, male or female; and makes such marriage
null. And fine is threatened to any person who shall
license, or perform the marriage ceremony. [This is a
consummation not devoutly to be wished by the newly-
married couple, the whipping -post. It is a prohibition
against legal amalgamation; illegitimate amalgamation is
not even discouraged by this Act, and the prohibition of
the testimony of a colored person, male or female, against
a white person, opens wide the flood-gates of sin.]

Sec. 4. Provides that if any negro or mulatto, the
property of any citizen of the United States, shall come
into the State for the purpose of hiring out, and shall
institute proceedings for his freedom, his case shall be dis-
missed from the court. And then the sheriff shall take
possession of the negro and confine him in jail, and notify
the owner, and keep him till the owner comes. [A short
way to dispose of a case in court! How happy it would

THE BLACK CODE OF ILLINOIS. 45

be for some of us impecunious fellows if, when we are sued
for a debt, the case is thrown out of court, and the cred-
itor seized and put in jail. That would have been an old-
fashioned stay-law, with an amendment.]

Such is an abstract of the Act of 1829, which was also
incorporated into the Revised Laws of 1833. But this Act
had to be amended, but not mended. For in 1831, the
law was made to declare that no black or mulatto person
should be permitted to reside in the State, thus cutting
down the right of citizenship of citizens of other States,
which Missouri never assumed to do up to the advent of
the rebellion. The same Amendment also fines any per-
son one hundred dollars for bringing any slave into the
State for the purpose of freeing him, and fines all persons
who assist him in so doing. [This was passed before the
under-ground railroads did a flourishing business.]

These, the Act of 1819 and the Act of 1829, were the
two main pillars of the Black Code. But there were other
laws that had other phases, in which they touched the
black man; indeed, the animus of white pride, after this is
intensified. What an awful inference used to come from
this idea of color! The devil is made black; in Africa, the
devil is white.

I quote now from the Criminal Code, approved Febru-
ary 1 6, 1833. All that has gone before we understand,
the fines, and the whippings, and the imprisonments, were
civil; now we arb to see what was criminal in our treat-
ment of the black 'man. And we have it in laws that
apply primarily to white people; these, white people are
to obey; whereas before it was only black persons who
were to obey — who could not go on to a neighbor's farm
without permission, who could not gather together in num-
bers more than three, and who could not have a jolly time
on Saturday without being flogged on Monday.

46 THE BLACK CODE OF ILLINOIS.

THE CRIMINAL CODE.

Sec. 149. Enacts that if any person (the law does not
say in this Act, "if any black or mulatto person") shall
harbor or secrete any negro or person of color, the same
being a slave or servant, owing service to any person resid-
ing in this State, or any other Stale or Territory of the
Unite i States, (what a care it has for the citizens of other
States!) or shall in any way /tinder or prevent the lawful
owner from retaking such slave or servant in a lawful man-
ner, he shall be deemed guilty of a misdemeanor, and
fined, not exceeding five hundred dollars, or imprisoned,
not exceeding six months.

Now we know what crime is. This law was passed
nearly twenty years before the national 'fugitive-slave law.
It virtually made Illinois the blood-hound of the whole
slave region, including any supposed territory, which only
the future could curse with slavery. Other States followed
this example with similar enactments. It is very possible
that Judge Douglas, in his zeal for the good cause, may
have given to his friend, Senator Mason, of Virginia, a
copy of this Act, as a model for the National Fugitive-Slave
Law of 1850. To Illinois belongs the dishonor of having
been the first to make a law which made it a crime to
feed the hungry, to clothe the naked, and to shelter the
stranger, or protect the fugitive from oppression. "Beray
not him that wandereth," is a command to humanity that
has come ringing down through all the ages of the past.
She opened wide the gate of destruction, as revealed by
the Saviour of Men, in the picture of the scene of the
Last Judgment.

Sec. 150. Actually forbids any person who holds to
service any servant under the laws of the Territory of
Indiana or Illinois, from taking them out of the State for
sale (otherwise kidnapping them), under the fearful penalty

THE BLACK CODE OF ILLINOIS. 47

of forfeiting his right to them, and of a fine, not exceed-
ing five hundred dollars, one-half to the benefit of the
kidnapped. The penalty of kidnapping is just the same
in fine as feeding and comforting the same person in dis-
tress, with the imprisonment left out.

TRUTH ON THE COLOR LINE.

Section 16 and section 3 in other Acts declare that the
testimony of no black or mulatto person, or Indian, shall
be received in evidence against a white person. One-
fourth negro blood defines a mulatto, or makes a black
man. These Acts apply to civil and criminal proceedings.
Observe that I introduced certain sections, with the premise
that no black or mulatto person should do so and so.
Now we know actually what a black person is — he may be
the offspring of an African, or be the child of a person
purely of European extraction, with another European
whose father or mother was an African. Thus the cele-
brated French author, Dumas, could not have given testi-
mony against Patrick O'Flanagan in a court of justice in
Illinois.

The Act of 1827 denies the right of habeas corpus to
the black man in a trial for his liberty.

The law for the establishment of free schools, after
eulogizing education as the means of perpetuating the
liberties of the people, limits the benefits of the school
system to white children. No black or mulatto person,
the son of the greatest of the black's, Tousaint L'Over-
ture, intermarried with the sister of the greatest of the
whites, Napoleon Bonaparte, (an alliance which, if made,
he need not have been so much ashamed of, as he might
have been of some of his family alliances,) could not have
been legally taught to read God's Word in the public
schools of Illinois.

48 THE BLACK CODE OF ILLINOIS.

OTHER LEGISLATION.

In an act for taxation, passed as late as 1839, are
classed along with stud horses, asses, jennies, mules, and
cattle, slaves and servants of color for assessment for taxes,
with other kinds of personal property. Thus were men,
because colored, bought and sold as property, advertised
in newspapers as runaways, bequeathed in wills, and set-
tled in estates, — and now classed with jackasses, as prop-
erty for taxation, under the laws of this State.

As population increased and civilization advanced in
the State, it is but to be presumed that amendments and
alterations of our laws would be required. Here seemed
to be a broad sphere of amendment in the proper sense.
So we find, as in 1833, that in 1845 our laws required
revision, and condensation into the practical form for
administration, so we have the statute book of 1845.
Immediately following the intense agitation for the repeal
of these laws, and the various attempts at prosecution,
such as the Lovejoy trial, we find in this new book of
the law all this code affecting the negro, which I have !
reviewed, properly compiled, and made available in the
courts of justice for effective use. The Black Code is there
perhaps rehashed, but certainly boiled down and intensi-
fied, parting with none of its peculiar ancient animus, but
as ever weighted down with all the malignity that patriot-
ism demanded should be aimed at the unfortunate negro.

A HIGH MISDEMEANOR.

We come along down now a few years further, till two
or three years after the enactment of the National Fugi- ;
tive- Slave Law, (the Nation therein showed the big N,)
and we find still another law on this irrepressible subject,
that of February 12, 1853. What immediate occasion
there was for it it is hard to tell; it is only an emphasis,
like the traditional sentence of the judge on the culprit of